


I Push The Needle Through

by Memories_of_the_Shadows



Category: Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon | Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Alternate Universe - No Powers, Best Friends, F/F, Fluff, Friendship/Love, Gratuitous Use Of Knitting Terminology, Knitting, Mistakes, Sweater Curse, Tooth-Rotting Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-24
Updated: 2020-04-24
Packaged: 2021-03-01 22:02:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,410
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23824273
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Memories_of_the_Shadows/pseuds/Memories_of_the_Shadows
Summary: Ami thinks knitting is supposed to be easy, but then, she's not used to failing quite as much as this.
Relationships: Mizuno Ami/Tsukino Usagi
Comments: 4
Kudos: 22
Collections: Sailor Moon





	I Push The Needle Through

**Author's Note:**

> Title is from "Knitting Something Nice For You" by Aidan Knight.
> 
> I do not consent to my work being hosted on any unofficial apps, especially any with ad revenue and subscription services, or any website other than ao3 unless I personally cross-posted a work.

Ami should be better at this.

It’s math, right, a quantifiable action with a quantifiable result, that should produce the same reaction every time. It’s not like it’s _cooking_ , with all it’s unseen variables, in which the air pressure actually _can_ make a difference sometimes.

Knitting is just a chart, yarn, and needles. The variables in those are clearly defined and can be easily adjusted for if the person is properly prepared.

‘Swatches are good for your character,’ proclaims one of her books on the subject, borrowed from Makoto, although Ami is a little suspicious at how readily Makoto gave her all her supplies and how none of them ever got any hand-knitted items as gifts from Makoto, who would normally never pass up an opportunity to spoil them all rotten with handmade things.

In any case, Ami made the swatch--several times, in fact, adjusting variables until it was perfect--has all her yarn neatly caked and ready for use, and her pattern printed and laminated so that she can check off as she goes.

Except… except. Nothing is turning out right.

First, she casts on the one hundred and eight stitches the pattern requires and carefully joins them in the round. Everything seems to be going well for the next few rows, and then Ami realizes that her sweater is rapidly turning into a Möbius strip, because it was twisted before she joined it, so she has to tear it out and start over again.

Next, despite Ami counting the stitches several times, she ends up with ninety-nine instead of one hundred and eight, as she finds out when the division for the sleeves doesn’t come out quite right.

Still, this is supposed to be _easy_ , and Ami is a genius. She’ll even admit that it’s very soothing: the clack of the needles, the soft, thick yarn, the repetitive motions.

At least, it’s soothing when something isn’t going wrong, which seems to be happening _constantly_.

Her yarn breaks on try three, apparently having had quite enough of being knit and then being ripped back.

Ami should have quit when her yarn did, but being best friends--and eventually, something different--with Tsukino Usagi has some downsides, like eventually becoming far too stubborn for her own good if only so Usagi didn’t run the whole show. Which would inevitably mean no studying and Ami likes her grades and even likes studying.

So Ami picks up one of the other balls and casts on again.

A stitch drops and ladders all the way down before Ami can do a single thing.

Somehow, Ami gets turned around and ends up knitting a short row, making it lopsided until she rips it back.

One of the yarn balls has a slight but very noticeable difference in shade to the others, despite supposedly being the same color. The dye lots being different apparently _is_ a bigger deal than Makoto thought.

She forgets to alternate knit rows and purl rows on the sleeves for a bit, ending up with very different fabric in that section.

Her join unravels, rows and rows after she knitted it into her clearly cursed sweater.

Ami clearly isn’t meant to knit. She doesn’t want to admit it, it was just as soothing as the books and videos mentioned, but if she can’t finish a supposedly easy project without catastrophe after catastrophe, then obviously she’s not cut out for it.

The half-finished sweater languishes at the bottom of Ami’s tote--abandoned and semi-squished under her textbooks--for a month, while Ami guiltily ignores it.

Usagi, of all people, is the one who finds it again.

“Oh, what a cute color!” Usagi says, tugging it out and holding it up to her clothes. Ami closes her eyes and tries not to look as guilty as she feels. “You’ll have to let me borrow it when you’re finished, Ami, it’ll go great with my jeans.”

It _would_ go great with Usagi’s jeans, Ami knows. Usagi favors tight, high-waisted, bleached denim: combine that with the loose, almost cropped-length, bright pink softness that is the mohair, well. Ami blushes. Usagi would look very good indeed.

Still, she can’t lie to Usagi, “I’m… not going to finish it,” Ami says, staring at her study sheet intently. Kami, though, she has no idea what it says.

“Why not? It looks so good, so far,” Usagi asks, sounding puzzled. Ami glances her way and can’t help but notice the way Usagi’s long fingers stroke the fabric.

Mohair really is very soft, that _had_ been one of her favorite parts.

“I’m just, I’m not very good at it.” Ami is not used to it _at all_. “Everything seems to go wrong, all the time.” That is an _understatement_. Ami can’t think of a single part that _didn’t_ go wrong.

Usagi giggles. “Silly. This looks _way_ better than my first projects.” She gestures dramatically, hiding her face in her elbow, her long, blonde pigtail bouncing with her suppressed laughter--it all makes Ami feel unaccountably fond, like there’s some humor to be found in her frustration after all--and Usagi cries, “no! Don’t even ask me to display my shame to you! I can’t bear the thought!” Usagi manages a straight face for all of a second before she just dissolves into laughter.

It’s hard not to laugh along whenever Usagi gets like this, and pretty soon they’re both crying and hiccuping with all the giggles. Usagi drapes her head on Ami’s shoulder--wiping her eyes on Ami’s shirt, a bad habit of hers that Ami’s never had the heart to put a stop to--and fiddles with the truly _massive_ needle. “It’s all at mama and papa’s anyhow. My dorm room doesn’t have the space for yarn.”

Ami knows she’s lucky that her mother is a successful doctor, who can afford to give her daughter luxuries like a decent apartment in place of time and attention, so she curbs her immediate instinct to say, ‘mine does.’ Usagi won’t take it as the offer it is, even though Usagi never gets truly _angry_. Instead, Ami asks, “when did you learn to knit?”

“Oh,” Usagi giggles, brushing the tip of the needle up and down Ami’s arm. “Years and years ago. Naru and I were in a home economics class together and the teacher offered extra credit.” Ami knows that Naru and Usagi grew apart after a while, when Usagi started to make friends outside of school and took an interest in politics despite her grades and Naru got closer to Umino. Childhood sweethearts, Usagi went to their wedding last year. “Considering the main grade was on cooking, and mama threatened to take away my allowance if I failed again, I was pretty motivated.”

Usagi’s cooking is a _terror_. Ami is truly surprised she made it through more than one home ec class. “You really think I should finish it?” Usagi hadn’t said anything of the sort, but Ami knows her by now. Usagi is the most stubborn, wonderful person Ami has ever met. The only time she ever retreats is only so she doesn’t hurt someone else.

“I think you’d be surprised how much you’ve learned by ‘failing’, Miss Perfect Grades.” Usagi sticks her tongue out, teasing, but it’s not mean like it used to be on other people. Usagi rocks her head back into a comfortable position on Ami’s shoulder, and her hair is soft when Ami leans her cheek against her.

“Okay,” how much more things can go wrong? Seriously? Ami’s fairly sure the only things left are natural disasters. “How about I make it for you?” It would look better on Usagi anyway. Most things do.

Although, Ami may just be a tiny bit biased.

Usagi’s eyes are closed but her nose wrinkles. “Don’t you know about the Boyfriend Sweater Curse?”

Ami smiles and presses a kiss to Usagi’s soft, blonde hair. She’s not worried about them breaking up because Ami made Usagi a sweater. Honestly, they’ve known each other since middle school--and maybe they don’t qualify as childhood sweethearts, been together forever, with their romantic relationship comparatively new--those foundations have weathered worse things. Still, “it’s a good thing you’re my girlfriend, then.”

“Sappy,” Usagi grins into Ami’s shoulder. “Let me know if you need help.”

Just the fact that Ami knows Usagi will do anything to help her, with big things or little things, makes her think she can do this after all.

**Author's Note:**

> The sweater Ami is trying to make is this [Over Easy, by Espace Tricot](https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/over-easy), a free pattern from [ravelry](https://www.ravelry.com/). The yarn is [Loopy Mango Mohair So Soft](https://www.ravelry.com/yarns/library/loopy-mango-mohair-so-soft) in the "shameless pink" colorway. These are all the problems I could come up with without resorting to google or my own knitting books, but feel free to tell me more. It would be… entertaining.
> 
> If you'd like, come visit me on [tumblr](https://sachinighte.tumblr.com/)!


End file.
